Writing about Writing

Writing is very useful in many instances for getting your ideas out there to the general public. There are quite a few instances where well thought out and well written words can mean the difference between failure and success. An example where good writing is important would be the President's State of the Union Address. In a situation where you're leading a country in which times certainly could be a lot better and you can't please anyone, the truth really isn't your friend. Political speech writers want to paint a new picture and outlook with every speech and shrug off accountability for all those failed promises of the past. Forget about how that hydrogen economy is coming along and all of the other "solutions" to our problems that have been proposed. Instead let's focus on diversions and blame all of our woes on terrorism and other forces beyond our control.

In order to be taken seriously writing should be well thought out and nicely written. In many situations, however, unscripted honesty is more interesting. I occasionally tune in to Off the Hook with Emmanuel Goldstein. The subject catches my interest since it's about technology and how it affects us today. Listeners call in with questions or something interesting to say about what's going on in our world involving technology. In one episode the hosts were forced into another studio that didn't have the ability to screen calls with the usual five minutes in advance that most live shows require. They just improvised and gave the entire show without callers. Emmanuel often blamed mistakes or bad content on the writer's strike. which is hilarious given that the show is obviously not scripted. The subject of the content is more interesting and important when you can tell that it's genuine.